You were promised some follow-up on the July 17th blog post about the FARM Act.
I was reminded to dive into the topic again with all the talk about a possible shutdown over the weekend if the semi-annual grudge match over raising the debt limit drags on.
Most importantly for individuals relying on the SNAP program, according to the Food Research & Action Center (https://frac.org), "...there is no need for SNAP recipients to worry about missing their October payments if a shutdown were to occur. If a shutdown were to occur and continue past mid-October, there is a $6 billion in SNAP contingency reserve funding carrying into fiscal year 2024, which may be used to cover SNAP costs."
On September 19th, Reuters published Senator Stabenow (D-MI) statement that they are hoping to finalize the bill in December. Read the complete article: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/expect-farm-bill-december-says-chair-senate-farm-committee-2023-09-19/
A little more searching turned up this video of a Senate subcommittee Hearing from April: https://www.agriculture.senate.gov/hearings/snap-and-other-nutrition-assistance-in-the-farm-bill in which five expert witnesses gave testimony about the value of the SNAP program. The video is two hours in length. If you prefer to read the witnesses' testimony, scroll down the page to download their individual statements.